The Spotlight is on Lemons!

The Spotlight is on Lemons!

It is July! In South Africa July is the coldest month! All over the country everyone is complaining about the cold!

So, what fruit and vegetables are in season in July?

Vegetables that are in season include lettuces, turnips, sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. Waterblommetjies are also in season now!

Some wonderful fruit are in season in July! All the citrus fruit such as oranges, lemons, grapefruit, naartjies, clemintines, minneolas, kumquats, manderins, etc is still in season. Guavas, avocados, pears, apples and pomegranates are also available at the moment. You will be able to find some strawberries now, as well as pineapples, persimmons, kiwis and passion fruit!!

Don’t let any fruit that is in abundance go to waist! Preserve those that can not be used right now! You can make any dish goes from drab to fab by adding some lemon to it! Lemon in any form from juice, zest or preserved can be added to a dish to make it taste wonderful. So preserve those extra lemons now by any of the following ways:

Cook some lemon marmalade or make some lemonade! Preserve the lemons by pickling it with rosemary or make some lemon curd!!

Lemon Marmalade:

Ingredients:

Zest of 6 lemons

Juice of 3 lemons

1 liter water

1 kg sugar

Wash the lemons and peel the skin with a potato peeler. Slice the peels into thin and short strips.

Squeeze the juice form 3 lemons and place the juice (pips included), zest and 1l water into a glass bowl. Cover and leave to stand for at least 16 hours.

Transfer the contents of the glass bowl to a heavy bottomed pot. Simmer for 90 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half.

Remove from the heat; remove the pips and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Put back onto heat and bring to a slow boil. Boil for 30 minutes. Test for gelling and if it did not gelled yet, cooked a little longer.

Once gelled, bottle in sterilized jars while still hot!

Lemonade

Ingredients:

900g lemons

200g white sugar

750ml boiling water

Wash the lemons and zest the lemons. Set the zest aside.

Peel the white pith off the lemons and chop the lemons into small pieces.

Place the lemon zest, chopped lemon and sugar in a glass bowl and pour the boiling water over. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and stand for 15 minutes.

Strain through a coriander pushing against the flesh in the coriander to press out as much juice as possible.

Discard the pulp and place the concentrate into sterilized bottles.

Keep refrigerated and serve, diluted with still or sparkling water.

Pickled lemons with rosemary

Ingredients

lemons, washed

coarse salt

fresh rosemary twigs

Cut each lemon almost in quarters but leave the last centimeter intact.

Coat the inside of the lemons generously with coarse salt.

Put the lemons with the rosemary twigs into a sterilized jar, sprinkling some extra salt over each layer of lemons.

Cover the jar. Shake and turn the jar often for three days until the lemons have juiced out. Add extra lemon juice to cover the lemons completely. Cover the jars again and store in a cool dark place for a month before using.

Lemon curd:

Ingredients:

zest of 1 lemon

75ml lemon juice

3 egg yolks

100g castor sugar

50g cubed butter

Whisk the zest, juice, yolks and castor sugar together until smooth.

Set it over a pot of simmering water, making sure that the bowl does not touch the water. Cook over the simmering water whilst stirring continuously, for approximately 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter one piece at a time until smooth and glossy.